My Microsoft Office skills have come a long way since I was in middle school and printed out inspirational phrases I spruced up using Word Art.
Now, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other applications are important in my everyday job duties. And if you’re reading this article, I’m guessing you rely on these types of solutions, too.
While our office application habits have changed over the years, so has Microsoft. They’ve updated their solutions to keep up with the times, including offering cloud-hosted options.
At The KR Group, one of the moves we’ve seen is an increased interest and demand for cloud-hosted solutions, including from Microsoft.
What Is Office 365?
Office 365 takes all the applications you know and offers them from the cloud.
Like any other cloud-hosted solution, this allows you to remove the on-premises hardware component and support less physical infrastructure.
With Office 365, you’ll send and receive emails through Exchange using Outlook Web Access (OWA), create documents with Word, formulate spreadsheets with Excel, and prepare presentations with PowerPoint.
Again, these are the same solutions you would have relied on with a traditional, on-premises Microsoft Office package, but now it’s all in the cloud.
Plus, being hosted in the cloud comes with a few unique benefits, such as:
- Available anywhere
- Ample storage
- Collaboration component
- Eliminating the need for VPN
- User-friendliness
As you consider solutions to meet your office application needs, you should keep these benefits in mind to see how Office 365 might work for your company.
Office 365 Is Available Anywhere
With Office 365, you don’t need the applications installed on your device to check your email, share a document, or access your OneDrive.
Of course, you’ll still want to consider cybersecurity best practices and take precautions if you’re using a device other than your company-issued one.
Office 365 Comes with Cloud Storage
Office 365 licensing also comes with space in OneDrive. Each person gets 1 Tb of cloud storage, which is an ample amount for almost all users.
By syncing your desktop files to OneDrive, you can use it as your personal workspace to access files from anywhere.
You can share and collaborate within files with other Office 365 users, or if the files are confidential – payroll records, for example – you can keep them private.
This became especially important during the pandemic as remote file sharing became necessary.
There’s a Collaboration Component to Office 365
Until Covid, Teams was a seldom talked about component of Office 365. Now, it’s a leading player in the collaboration space.
With Teams’ single platform set up, Office 365 becomes the center of your business’s collaboration. You can send instant messages and join video conferences.
And, it’s still a part of your Office 365 license, so you don’t need to switch solutions or have another bill for a feature that is already part of a service you use.
Office 365 Eliminates the Need for VPN
Office 365 also comes with SharePoint, which Microsoft advertises as its mobile, intelligent intranet.
Essentially it can eliminate the need for a VPN connection because you’re using the cloud to store and share files instead of logging into an on-premises shared drive.
So within your Office suite, you’ll connect to your email, communicate with coworkers, and access files without a VPN connection.
Office 365 Is User Friendly
Combined, all the features of cloud-based Office 365 create a user-friendly experience. 
You can access your SharePoint files through Microsoft Teams and tie your collaboration and email to Teams as well.
You don’t need a ton of tools to do your work because they’re all in Office 365. And for most users, the fewer tools needed, the easier it is for them to do their jobs.
If you’re familiar with Microsoft Office solutions, moving to Office 365 gives you access to the same applications but from the cloud.
And even if you haven’t been a Microsoft user in a while, the accessibility with Office 365 is on par with other cloud-hosted office solutions.
Either way, there are many benefits to reap from using Office 365, including:
- Available anywhere
- Ample storage
- Collaboration component
- Eliminating the need for VPN
- User-friendliness
And if you still aren’t completely convinced Office 365 would work in your business, you can try it for free for 30 days to see how your business could benefit.
